Voice in the Void
by KuuEggs
Summary: The age of Space Pirates. With the war between the three super powers amounting to little more than a formality and threatening looks, many have taken it upon themselves to reinvent freedom and follow only their own laws. Luka Megurine, captain of her own ship and crew, is one of them. But things change when she steals the secret weapon of the Federation - a girl called Miku.
1. It's Time For Piracy

**Voice in the Void**

Log 001

**It's Time For Piracy**

She loved the thrill of experiencing a real life or death battle. With her back pushed against the steel wall, a big photon bullet shooting rifle in her right hand and a long beam cutlass in her left, rapid fire from the enemy flew right past her.

Looking at the woman on the other side of the corridor, a brunette dual-wielding a single beam long sword and a double barrel modified handgun, she raised her hand with the cutlass, showed her index and middle finger, pointed towards the end of the corridor, and nodded towards it. The brunette reached for a set of goggles that were strapped to her waist and put them on.

The woman put her cutlass away and reached for one of four blast grenades that were attached to the inside of her long black coat. Peeking down their path, she counted four men to the left, two women to the right. After counting to ten, she threw the bomb in their general direction. The blast forced black clouds down both directions. The brunette stormed down the corridor, able to see through the smokescreen because of her equipment, jumping over the make-shift barricade the ship's guards had created. She looked down - she was jumping right over one. "Boom." A single targeted shot blew off more than half of his head.

Whirling around, her longsword cut straight through the arm of another guard and she finished him off with a shot to the chest, leaving a big gory hole. The sound of heeled leather boots informed her that her captain was right behind her. Pushing forward, she felt a photon bullet fly past her cheek from her right. A dozen shots reached the target before she could even turn. Her captain had put on her own goggles and joined the fray.

Several shots and two melee hits later, two women emerged from the dust cloud, not as much as a drop of blood on them. The brunette looked to her captain, who was adjusting her large, black hat with gold trim. Pressing a button on her collar, she opened a secure short distance line to the remainder of her team. "We took out most of the guards. Len, get the transporter going and take the cargo bay. Rin, you go with your brother and keep him in one piece. Yukari, keep watch on the ship. Both of you, gun down everything armed that shows up."

"Roger that!" Roaring high pitched laughter came from the other end of the line.

"On my way. Sis, try not to blow up the ship," a masculine voice responded.

"Kaito, what's your position?" The captain handed the rifle to the brunette and pulled out a smaller, easier to handle handgun similar to the one her companion was using from the leather holster on her thigh.

"Sector 8, Area 12. Ballroom. Gathered passengers and awaiting your entry, Captain," a deep and grumpy voice responded, saying no more than absolutely necessary.

"Stand by, we're on our way." Speeding up and running down the hallway, she kept her finger on the trigger of her gun and her free hand on the handle of her cutlass.

"How many did you kill?" The brunette used the communication line for some chatter of her own.

"Six," the grumpy voice replied.

"I got eight. Your loss, Kaito," the brunette said into the small device that was mounted to a leather strap around her neck. "You're treating me next shore leave."

"Cut the chatter. We're not done here." The captain's voice put both of them back in line. A single guard peeked out from inside a room and unsteadily aimed at the pirates. While the captain simply kept running, the brunette stopped and threw her weapon.

With a zinging sound, the beam blade of a longsword pierced through the guard's head, a leather cord attached to the handle. "Meiko, no killing unless necessary." Her captain's words were not scolding but merely matter of fact. She had stopped running a dozen meters ahead of her shipmate.

With a gory noise, the weapon returned to the hand of its owner. "Even a wuss could land a lucky shot. I don't take risks on the job." The brunette was older than her captain but nonetheless perfectly loyal. "You should be more careful."

"That's what I have you for. Let's go."

One deck below, inside a large and luxurious room, was a single blue haired pirate, his face covered by a black hat and a blue scarf, his muscular body exposed below a white vest that sat under a pale gray coat. Noticing noise from above, he stepped to the side, one eye watching the roughly fifty guests of the luxury carrier and the other keeping an eye on the entrance. With a heavy and powerful full-automatic rifle in each hand, a weapon that nobody else on board excluding Meiko could have used in combat, he was ready to put a hundred holes into any hostiles that showed up.

But he had no such reason. The door exploded into a dozen big pieces under the fury of a beam cutlass. Kicking down the remains, black, unlaced leather boots were the first part of the captain that the guests saw. Her entrance was remarkable, even among the more senior pirates. The brunette fired a dozen shots, hitting the ceiling and causing dust to fall. Her captain slowly walked into the large room.

Long pink hair fluttered through the air with every step. Her black coat was exposed in the front, revealing large breasts bulging below the white one piece that she wore beneath her coat. A single blood red piece of cloth was wrapped around her waist and hanging down the front, a black girdle reined over the cloth.

"Double Lariat Luka is here! Hand over your valuables or you'll hand over your life!" Luka took her her cutlass and threw it down the stairs. It pierced the ground just meters away from a particularly fat, rich lady. With a roaring laugh, Luka descended the stairs, jumping over the rail before she got all the way down, and landed in front of a few scared guests. "Boo!" Watching them flinch and scram, she got up and laughed again. Whistling, Luka looked up. "Meiko! Get their shit! If any of them hesitate, shoot the children first and then their family!"

It was code. It meant that if the civilians were holding back, Meiko would threaten them with violence, possibly rough the adults up a little, but she would not seriously hurt any civilians. As she went around pulling jewelry from people's necks and taking rings from their fingers, Luka eyed a tall, muscular man that was behaving oddly. She walked towards him. He pulled out a gun and aimed at the captain. Without hesitation, Luka calmly raised her gun and fired, blowing a huge hole into the head of the man. Slowly walking over, she aimed at his heart, firing two more times.

"Anyone else that wants to test what color their guts are?" Luka yelled. She didn't like hurting civilians, but this was the very definition of a cutthroat business. Pirates lived on their reputation.

Meiko went around and grabbed everything the people could possibly give, stuffing it all into a large brown bag. Forcing them to take off earrings, golden piercings, rings, anklets, bracelets, hair ornaments, she was stripping everything of value from them. Meiko noticed an almost anorexic lady who was cowering on the ground, holding a crimson colored handbag in her arms. Meiko put her gun to her forehead. "Hand it over. Or I'll hand over your brain to the old man behind you."

With tears in her eyes, the woman handed over the last of her valuables. "Been wanting a new handbag," Meiko grinned. She would definitely claim it at the loot distribution.

Luka continued to put god's fear into the passengers until Kaito needed her attention. "Len is done. Cargo is on the way back." He wasn't a man of many words, but he was more reliable than anyone else. He was also extremely skilled and had amazing intuition and sense for battle. A mercenary that was sick of the war and was now fighting only for himself and his captain's crew.

Luka whistled again, the signal for Meiko to finish up. Firing two shots in the air, Luka raised her voice to the maximum. "Hey! You rich and spoiled trash! We disabled the ship's engine and destroyed your weapon systems, but communication and life support is still going. Once we're out of jamming range, you can call mommy for help!" Smiling in a devious way, Luka added something terrifying. "If anyone even wants to rescue penniless losers like you!"

Luka walked away, with Meiko carrying the large brown bag over her shoulder behind her and Kaito covering their backs, ascending the stairs backwards with rifles pointed at the crowd. Just before they left, he unleashed a volley of shots at the large chandelier, causing it to crash to the ground. With a flash, the lights inside the room went off.

Luka called their engineer as they ran back towards their ship, the Blackjack. "Len, how is it going?"

"Cargo is quietly floating out in space inside a containment field. I'm pulling it into our storage hold just now. How did the shaking go?"

"One hero that I had to put down and sub-par loot. What's the cargo like?"

"Mostly consumable stuff. Meiko is gonna want the alcohol."

"We're getting out of here before the Empire comes looking for what happened to their cruiser."

$ # € # ¥

Luka threw her hat on her desk and herself on her bed and stretched. Combat always tired her out but she loved it nonetheless. Those who took up arms had to be ready to get killed. That was simply how things worked in space. With the war being at a stalemate for over 50 years now, things didn't look like they were going to change anytime soon. It was a golden age for piracy and freedom.

"Hey, Captain." Someone knocked on the door. The voice belonged to Meiko.

"We're not working. Door open." The thick steel door slid open on her voice command and let the brunette woman in.

"Oh come on, I like calling you that, Luka." Carrying two simple whiskey glasses with her, Meiko put them on the old mahogany table and pulled a shadewood chair up to it. "They had some really awesome stuff there."

"We didn't share loot yet. Did you just take it?" Luka got up, took off her coat, put her weapons away in an old wooden closet, and took the remaining shadewood chair and sat with her cousin.

"I'll be taking most of the alcohol anyway. And I wanted to have a drink with you before we make port at Austriche." A small planet in the Akusume system. One of the four inhabited planets that were made habitable by the Commonwealth's terraformers. The entire system was a haven for pirates and infamous throughout most of the galaxy. "You doing okay?"

"It's not the first time I had to shoot a civilian after they draw a gun on me. I don't like it but I'm not going to go paranoid or feel guilty about it. They know what they're getting themselves into if they point a weapon at pirate." Luka took her glass, moved it towards Meiko, gave her a nod. "Pour."

"I know how much you hate hurting civilians and we all follow your orders to the letter on that, but Kaito could have taken that shot easily if you had gone for cover." Meiko smelled the deep golden liquid as she uncorked the bottle and poured some very old whiskey into both glasses. "Two century old whiskey, distilled in the old capital of the Empire, Leva Pokka. You can't get much more high class than this." Meiko licked her lips. She was very much a gourmet when it came to alcohol.

"A captain can't be a wimp. I wanted to take the shot and I did. Now let's enjoy the drink. What are the others doing?" After clinking glasses, Luka took a sip. It was really, really strong, almost too strong for her, but she took a second sip before putting it back down. "Don't down the whole bottle on your own. No getting wasted before we make port."

"Sure, sure. I've no idea what Kaito is doing but he's probably just staring out into space from the observation deck and smoking. Rin is holed up in her room, disappointed that she didn't get to blow anything up. Len is helping Yukari sort through the loot. They should be call-" A loud beeping noise interrupted the brunette. "Want me to get it?"

"You're my vice captain, not my secretary. Receive call." A small screen, roughly sixty centimeters wide and forty centimeters high, popped up in mid-air right in front of Luka. "What is it, Yukari?"

A purple haired girl, her hair tied into two large bangs, showed on the screen. "We finished sorting the loot. There won't be much to distribute since almost all of it is food, drinks and various consumable luxury goods. Even if we try to sell it, it probably won't amount to much. What do you want to do?"

"I'll leave that up to you. After all, you're doing an excellent job at managing our resources and money." Luka trusted the girl despite having only known her for about a year. She was the last to join the crew and even though they were not even close to fully staffing the modified battleship, and probably would never be, Luka didn't feel the need to hurry to recruit more people.

"Want me to tell Rin that there are two barrels of hyper conducting transfluid?"

"Leave that to Len. He can deal with her." Laughing, Luka noticed a single strand of blond hair at the very far corner of the screen. Len was right there, working at a station right next to the one Yukari was using to call.

"You're horrible, captain." Len's voice came from the direction of the blond hair.

"Of course." Ending the call, Luka returned her attention to Meiko. She was a capable officer even if she tended to drink too much, too often. It had gotten her discharged from the Empire military a year ago at the age of twenty six. Four years older than Luka, she was her cousin and had known the pink haired woman since they were children. Kaito had served with her during training but had not entered military service after finishing. He was also a year older than Meiko.

Taking another sip, Meiko leaned back. "It's been pretty much exactly a year since you became a pirate and hired all of us. Any regrets?"

"None. This is exactly the freedom I always wanted. I can take what I want, do it when I want and go wherever I want. I don't have to obey anyone, I don't have to follow any orders or rules; I can make my own. I decide who lives on my ship and who dies by my hand." Luka smiled and poured a bit more into her glass, lifting it up and holding it in front of her face, peering through the golden liquid at Meiko. "I love being a pirate."

"Don't you think we should be looking for a few more people soon? We really need a mechanic. Another couple or three people to go on raids would be handy too. Not that I don't trust us three to handle it, but we could be taking on a lot bigger fish than this if we had more people."

"All in due time." Luka calmly put her glass down and smiled. "Finish your drink, we'll go and call everyone up to divide what we took off the rich farts." Gulping down her whiskey and violently breathing out, Luka shook her head as the fire of the whiskey reached her stomach. "I **love** being a pirate."

Meiko finished her drink as well, without showing any reaction like Luka. Putting down her glass, she got up first and waited for Luka to join her. Going out as she was, without putting her coat or hat on, Luka only truly cared about the attire at the job or when she was off the ship on some planet. She already knew what she would spend her money from this cruise on: fine women and girls. She had heard that the brothels on Austriche had recently started employing fox girls from Wave, their home planet in the Commonwealth. Of course, she wouldn't just use her money for that. She had quite a way with the ladies. Being a pirate had many advantages, such as catching the fancy of many local girls.

Heading down the hallway, Luka slammed her fist against Rin's door twice. "Loot time, stop moping. I hear they got something good for you in the hangar."

The door slid open a second later and a tall, blonde girl showed up, her long hair messy and her jump suit covered in various liquids for machinery. Her room always smelled of danger, and that wasn't just because she was disassembling and assembling weapons in there. "What is it?"

"Ask Len." Luka liked the girl. She was easy to read and was slightly obsessed with cannons and explosions. She had joined simply because pirates were the most likely to ever get into actual combat, with each of the three governmental superpowers too scared of their economy breaking apart should they really go go into a large battle and lose. Thus, hundreds of thousands of soldiers that were trained never saw actual combat.

Rin was an engineer that specialized in hardware and weapons. From dreadnaught sized ship to ship atomic destabilizer cannons all the way down to handguns and beam weapons, she could pretty much make anything. And she came with a brother that made all the software those weapons needed to function correctly.

Both of them had joined at the young age of eighteen and had been on the ship for a year now. Only Yukari was younger than them. The siblings were both from the Empire, similar to Meiko and Kaito, and had left because no matter how rich the Empire was, or how high their living standard was, it didn't mean a thing if they couldn't do what they wanted to do. Thus, they joined the pirates when they had the chance.

"Can we rob a military vessel next? Maybe a destroyer?" Rin's finger were itching to pull the trigger on the ship's cannons. She couldn't handle even half of them on her own but if she focused on just the primary weapon, the particle launcher, she could do some insane damage. It was an state of the art Empire ship after all.

"We can't handle a destroyer with just six people. This ship is made for a lot of people. Even a skeleton crew is probably intended to be around twenty people. We're not even half that." Luka walked next to the blonde, who was showing off too much cleavage. The zipper that kept her jump suit together in front was pulled all the way down to her waist, as usual, and her chest wasn't that much smaller than Luka's.

"Tch. Recruit a few more people then!" Rin was quick to throw a tantrum, but never when they were on the job. The one time it did happen, Luka had put a gun to her head and threatened to shoot her should she behave like a child for a second time. Since then, Rin had always acted mostly like a professional when working.

"Had the same conversation with Meiko just now. We'll pick up some people when the time is right." Luka patted Rin's head as they walked. "It's been **one** year, Rin. I want you to put a zero after that one before you get impatient."

"Hey Rin, wanna go out together when we make port? You were just gonna hole yourself up and play with your tech, right?" Meiko was not like Luka. She liked to keep her company to people she knew. Rin was not the best serious discussion partner but she was pretty funny to watch and talk to.

"We're gonna have a blast." Turning sideways, Rin bounced fists with Meiko. "See what I did there?"

Meiko groaned and broke out in moderate laughter afterward. "If only you were as good a comedian as you're a mechanic."

"Says the woman who thinks juggling empty bottles is entertainment," Luka teased.

"Luka! You promised not to tell anyone about that!" Meiko groaned again, this time out of embarrassment. Rin wouldn't let her leave in peace now.

"If I get treated to an all-you-can-eat barbeque I might just forget out of happiness that I ever heard anything," Luka said. The vice captain threw up her hands.

"Luka, you did that on purpose!" Meiko hissed while Rin kept grinning at her. "Fine, I'll treat you." Luka was such a shrewd person. It were the little things that she did occasionally that made her a mean person.

Reaching the hangar, Rin quickly went to Len. He was taller than her by a whole head. Only Kaito was was taller than him, reaching an impressive 185 centimeters in height. While Len was a bit skinny - not the type one would expect to survive in a combat situation - Kaito was basically a grizzly. That by itself was part of the reason Len idolized him quite a bit, even though he knew that he would never be like Kaito.

Someone who was new would have expected a big pile of gold and platinum jewelry that would be divided among the six. But they themselves couldn't do much with it. Someone had to sell the stuff, and that someone was Yukari. She wasn't just a really pretty face. Due to her moving from one place to another for the better part of her life, she knew people everywhere, and knowing people was her job. She sold and bought information as well as stolen goods. She was informant, fence and jack of all trades, in it for the money due to her family being extremely poor after going bankrupt while living in the Empire and then fleeing to a poor Commonwealth planet.

Despite their jobs offering various degrees of risk, Luka believed in equality among the crew members. She took ten percent of the loot for herself and ten percent for maintenance and other crew related expenses, with the rest divided equally among all crew members. Compared to many other crews that had fixed pay for their crew, one could get a lot more money on Luka's ship.

"We didn't make too much this time. The cargo would alleviate our food expenses but since we'll make port in about an hour, it would just rot away while we're off duty. I'll sell what I can and put it in our account. Luka, your share is a 122,000 credits." Yukari preferred to use the Federation currency as it was the strongest one and accepted in many non-Federation worlds. The three superpowers were too preoccupied with keeping their economy afloat to outlaw other currencies. "Everyone else gets 195,200 credits, minus their safety margin."

It was a system that Yukari had come up with. As sometimes situations arose when money was tight and the crew needed more than it had, everyone had to pay ten percent of every payout into their safety account, which they could only access with Luka's and Yukari's permission. "Leaves everyone with 175,680 credits. Less than expected but enough to have fun for a few days."

It was just a formality to assemble in the hangar for this. Money was transferred directly to their respective accounts and the loot was sold by Yukari the next time they made port at one of the safe planets. During the war, people had gotten used to pirates and even though many feared them, they were good for business on many of the poorer planets that were far from the capital planets. The Commonwealth in particular was more tolerant of pirates than the Empire and the Federation, simply because they were the poorest government out of the three.

"That was still good work out there, everyone. Another successful day of work for the Blackjack pirates." Luka stood in a circle with her crew. Kaito had shown up, silently, after everyone else. "Rin, Len, good job with the cargo. Meiko and Kaito, you did good with the guards."

"Captain," the blue haired mercenary said, "is there any particular reason we have been prioritizing Empire vessels?"

"They have more money. That's really it. No personal vendetta, Kaito, if you're worried." Luka grinned a little.

"I trust you with my life. I do not worry about your decisions. I was merely interested." His voice was always a little muffled due to the fact that he was barely ever seen without his blue scarf wrapped around his neck, covering the lower part of his face.

"Don't be such a stiff stick in the mud, Kaito. Luka is just pushing your buttons." Rin chuckled while standing next to him. She looked like a little girl compared to the tall blue haired man.

"But we're running low on ammo, so next time we'll hit something military, maybe from the Commonwealth but most likely from the Federation. Yukari, I'm counting on you to keep your ears open." Luka preferred to hit cruisers and the likes, as there were always a lot more guards to kill on military vessels. But it was necessary from time to time. Those who entered into service knew that they were in risk of being brutalized by a pirate.

"Always." The purple haired girl was proud of her skill and contacts and smiled. She wasn't arrogant or high and mighty about it. On the contrary, she was very respectful towards those that went into the thickest danger, those being Luka, Meiko and Kaito. Rin and Len had her respect too, as they were very good at their jobs, even if Rin was a bit of a problem child, always wanting to blow the enemy vessel up.

"We're only gonna stay in Austriche for a couple days. The ground is a little hot there nowadays." While Luka liked to have fun on a planet, she only felt truly at home when the ship was gracefully sailing through space. Although the sailing was purely metaphorical, as there was no wind in space and the ship more closely resembled a very long metal cylinder than a sailing boat.

"Angry ex-girlfriends hunting you down again, Luka?" Meiko had her revenge on Luka for blabbering earlier.

"I can deal with **them** but there is this new drug going around and they're having cartel wars down there. I'd rather not have to gun down some stupid drug dealer because he thinks I need to buy his shit." Luka didn't approve of people destroying their own bodies with harmful substances like that. Meiko's alcoholism was an exception since she was just naturally resistant to the bad side effects. Her liver must be made of some kind of unbreakable alloy that made dark matter look like the most common thing in space.

"So, all of you, don't take any candy from shady people!" Luka earned laughter from everyone but Kaito, who simply smiled beneath his scarf.

"You watch too many ancient movies, Luka." Yukari wiped away a tear from laughing too hard. "I bet you heard that line in one of these antique movies they made on Earth, right?"

"Busted." The laughter intensified and Luka pulled out a single golden coin from her pocket. "Heads or tails, guys and gals? Time to decide who deals with that ugly old fart of a port master."

Rin was the first to shout out what her gut was telling her. "Tails!"

"I'm fine with tails." Meiko believed that Luka sometimes cheated but she had never been able to prove it.

"It's a fifty-fifty chance anyway." Len saw no reason to object.

Flipping the coin high into the air, Luka kept her eyes on it and snatched it out of the air when it came down, slamming it on the back of her other hand. "Ah, crud, it's tails. Guess I'll be taking care of him." Luka had cheated. Her excellent eyesight allowed her to roughly tell when the chances were high to get a certain outcome when she took the coin. She liked her crew and they had lost the last two times in a row. So she cheated.

$ # € # ¥

Luka stretched and looked up at the metallic sky that was just a gargantuan metal plate that separated this layer of the city from the newer ones. Downtown, literally: a town below the town. First, she had gone to the bar, chatted up a beautiful blue haired girl, and taken her to a love hotel, only to leave as soon as she was getting bored. She was infamous for her whimsical behavior when on leave. But that didn't stop girls and guys alike from being completely infatuated with her, and she took full advantage of it.

Second, she had gone around the brothels, checking if any of them offered one of those elusive fox girls. They looked much like humans but had sharper noses, slightly longer chins, different pupils, fox ears that grew out of the top of their head, with their normal ears having degenerated and being mostly cosmetic now and a spine that extended into a tail that grew out of their back just above their butt. They were genetically close enough to humans to mate with them and unless both parents were Kitsu, fox people, the child would be a normal human.

There was some racism against the _evolved_ humans in the Federation, and a lot in the Empire, but the Commonwealth welcomed them with open arms. That was the reason why basically all known evolved humans and their homeworlds joined the Commonwealth.

Finally finding a black haired Kitsu girl, as many took offense at the term _fox girl_, Luka paid for her services and _very_ thoroughly enjoyed her new company. After finding out that many Kitsu were overly sensitive with their ears, she took full advantage of that.

Two hours and as many orgasms later, Luka left a very tired out Kitsu girl behind and proceeded to leave the adult entertainment district, to be polite about it, bringing the captain to her current position.

Luka hit a bar and grill, feeling like stuffing herself. She had burned a third of her cash already on drinks and female company. She just didn't fancy men the same way but if she did, she would want someone like Kaito. Maybe it was simply because she preferred to be in control. Or maybe she just liked boobs too much. That was a sensible explanation.

Going in, she immediately spotted a familiar scene. Meiko and Rin were surrounded by many people, cheering and whistling, while they were competing against two much larger men with drink and food. Meiko had sixteen empty mugs piled up next to her, leading by three, while Rin had eight empty dishes by her side, leading by one. While the brunette was chugging down another beer, the blonde was chowing away at pasta.

Moving past the crowd, Luka noticed that the whole crew, minus Yukari, was here. All the way in the shadowy back was Kaito, sitting on an old and worn out table with Len, both of them watching their female counterparts destroy their competition. Luka couldn't fathom how they had all ended up in the same place but she didn't put it past Meiko that she simply dragged them all away to _bond_ or something like that. In truth, she just really easily got lonely.

Luka grabbed a chair from another table and pulled it with her all the way to the back. "Watching the ladies?" she asked Len and Kaito as she sat down, not as a captain, but as a friend.

Kaito closed his eyes and pulled down his scarf, revealing a small grin, before emptying half of his glass and returning the scarf to its rightful position. Len was a little more talkative, even though he was not a great conversationalist. "They're competing if they can beat the store record and get off without paying their bills. The other two are the ones that hold the record right now. But at the rate my sister is going, they'll all eat and drink the poor store out of business."

"Been doing anything interesting? Business was the same as usual for me." Luka looked back over her shoulder and a waitress she knew **very well** walked by. Luka snatched a mug from her tray, a charming smile on her lips, stopping the girl from saying anything.

"Meiko decided we should all hang out together and for once we didn't have any plans of our own. It's nice to just watch while she keeps all the attention on herself." Len tried to imitate how Kaito behaved for a bit but it wasn't really working too well. He was no party animal but he was also no loner.

"You should go and find yourself some nice company before it's day time again, Len." The dirty smirk on Luka's face was very obvious. Gulping down half of the content in her mug, she wiped some foam from her chin. "You know if Meiko has a thing for petite blonde guys, Kaito?" She was just teasing Len now.

Daytime and nighttime meant nothing to those traversing space. There were no real day circles on a ship due to the lack of being a planet, obviously. But nonetheless, often they had multiple clocks that were labeled after planets they commonly visited. And for pirates, nighttime was when the real day began.

"Possibly." An amused grunt came from the battle-hardened mercenary and he picked up some of the meat loaf that was resting on his table. It amazed Luka how he was able to eat and drink while just barely adjusting his scarf each time and never get as much as a single stain on it.

"You hear that Len?" Luka was now bouncing her fist against the guy's shoulder. "Maybe you should try to work your charms on Meiko for a change."

"I'd be dead by morning. And I prefer quiet, intelligent girls." Len shook his head. "I can't keep up with those two."

"So you would like an anti-Rin, is that it?" Luka broke out in laughter while Len groaned with a big smile. Even Kaito was amused and lowered his head a little, grinning to himself with just one eye open. He usually preferred some quiet time alone when he was on leave but sharing a table with what he now saw as his family wasn't so bad either. It certainly made for some amusing moments.

"Rin is gonna cry if she hears you say that." Len grabbed his mug and emptied it, raising it high above his head, as a sign he wanted a refill. Most of his money went to drinking and food expenses. Sometimes he also visited a cabaret to have some not quite so crude female company, but he wasn't the type to go outright to a brothel.

"I think she is **making** that massive dude over there cry instead." Luka pointed over her back and looked at the man that was trying to beat Rin in an eating contest. He was holding his sides and about to throw the towel. Rin, the glutton, had a basically bottomless stomach. Wasn't exactly a surprise. She often spent hours or even days without end working on her machinery, not eating and only doing the absolutely necessary to stay alive. She sometimes smelled like a dumpster because of that.

Eating like one of those Chira aliens was not that unusual when following a lifestyle like that. And of course, a normal person, no matter how much of a big eater they were, couldn't compare to that. "I'll see how they're doing. Len, that redhead waitress has been eyeing you every time she walks past. Be a man, like Kaito."

Len looked at Kaito and got a calm nod towards the waitress that was very obviously eyeing Len. "Go." Kaito was looking to have some time to himself anyway, so this was a great chance to combine the useful with the pleasant.

Luka made it to the table and cheered with the others for Rin and Meiko for a good two minutes before Meiko did a fantastic spit-take, yelling and pointing at her. "Luka!"

Rin had, in the meantime, beaten the record and would still be going strong if she hadn't burned her tongue with some incredibly hot soup. "Come to check on us?" Rin burped and laughed, amused by the sound she made.

"Just dropping by for a meal, actually. Didn't think all you guys were gonna be here. Good work, Rin. Puke and I'm making you pay for all you ate." Just as Luka laughed, the second guy fell from his chair, moved about two meters and puked right over Luka's shoes.

Within seconds, the audience scrambled, recognizing the pirate captain for who she was. The icy contempt and rage in Luka's eyes promised extraordinary pain.

A very merciless beat up later, Luka walked away with all worldly possessions the man had to offer, including using his jacket to wipe her boots clean. Cleansing her nose by ordering an extra large portion of the place's best meat, Luka sat down on a table with Meiko, who was just enjoying the booze on her own pace now, and Rin, who was having a blast observing Len trying to flirt with a waitress.

A good ten minutes later, Luka got a call. "Accept call, voice only." She was still eating and was going to slap someone's head if this wasn't important.

"Captain. I picked up some **extremely** hot info. So hot, it makes this system's star look like a glow-stick." Yukari was on the other end of the line, sitting in a very classy bar in the upper layer of the new town, where the entry fee exceeded what one paid for a great meal down below. Enjoying an expensive drink, slowly, while catching up with her contacts, Yukari combined work and free time efficiently.

"It's rare for you to make such a big deal out of things. Is it worth canceling shore leave?" To cancel shore leave was something Luka hated to do to her crew and thus it was something she only did in an emergency.

"We're talking about an once in a lifetime opportunity here. I don't know how many others know, but this is big. **Really** big. I can't tell you here as this line isn't secure." Yukari was audibly nervous, something Luka took as a cue to take her seriously. Hanging up, Luka took a quick breath.

"Start call, crew." It was an one-way message to all crew members. It would be audio only and force them to accept the call, no matter what they were doing. "Shore leave is canceled. A job the size of a damn gas giant came in and we can't afford to sit around and twiddle thumbs while the biggest party this galaxy has seen in this decade goes up out there. Assemble at the ship in thirty. Don't be late."

Within seconds, Meiko had left her booze behind, Rin went up and out the door, Len excused himself from the waitress he had successfully chatted up and Kaito was already gone by the time Luka got up, leaving her dinner.

The five of them hurried to the ship, all via different paths to not rise suspicion and throw off possible followers. Yukari was already waiting at the port. "Port master is dealt with. We're good to go."

"Good. Check attendance." A quiet, robotic voice in her ear responded _all green_ before Luka went up the ramp, entering through the hangar.

Fifteen minutes later, the entire crew was assembled in the cockpit. "Now out with it. What is so big that we had to get off that planet this instant?" Luka wasn't **happy** about canceling shore leave for her crew at all.

"The Federation is transporting a top secret weapon that is supposedly powerful enough to wipe a hundred square kilometers of space completely clean. They're pushing to change the power balance of the war. Nobody knows what this weapon is or when they developed it, but they call it a prototype so it must be new. Imagine what this weapon could be worth on the black market. We could cover the ship in Iridium and still have a fortune left over. I'm talking about trillions, maybe quadrillions of credits here. Possibly even more than that if we play our cards right."

"I know this is a moot point to ask but is this information reliable?"

"My most trusted source came to me and told me. It's the big talk in the underworld right now. I'm positive that not only is this right but that we're in luck. The transport for the new weapon is scheduled to pass through a nearby solar system in two hours. Even if others learn of this now, they won't be able to make it there before we do."

"And you can sell this weapon? Who would have the money to buy it?" Luka was a little skeptical. A quadrillion credits was an unbelievable amount of money. The entire ship they were flying, fully equipped, was only worth a few hundred billions. One could buy an entire fleet for that kind of money.

"The Empire." Yukari had no qualms about making deals with them, even though the Empire had ruined her family's money situation. Such was the life of a pirate. "The Commonwealth may have the money too, but it will be more difficult to sell it to them."

"Info on the transport?"

"Melt, V3 armed transport class." Yukari saw the look in Luka's eyes. "They are expected to have several destroyer class ships with them. There are rumors that the Saihate is among them."

"So we're trying to rob the biggest armed convoy this part of the galaxy has seen in a century. Is that what you're saying?" Luka's gaze was completely fixed on the purple haired girl. "Are you certain they're not going past with warp drive?"

"It's impossible to transport something of such importance with warp drive. There is always an error margin of a few percent so they would be easy pickings if someone knew where they would show up." Due to the gravitational nature of planets, it wasn't possible to emerge within several thousand kilometers of one with warp drive and still arrive in one piece. Traveling past one was possible, still.

"Where are they headed?"

"Unknown." Yukari could get her hands on a lot of info but she wasn't all-powerful.

"It's risky." Luka thought about it for a moment. "But we're doing it. Nothing risked, nothing gained. Set course for the system, Yukari." Luka turned around and walked away. "Time to get my hat. It's time for piracy."

After Luka left, Rin immediately jumped Yukari. "I can blow up the guarding ships, right? **Right**?!" She was completely excited over finally getting to use all the ship's cannons, and most of all, the main cannon.

"That is Luka's call, but I doubt the guarding vessels have anything of value on board." Yukari briefly smiled. "You'll get to have your fun, I'm sure."

Ten minutes later, Yukari was flying the ship. Luka had called Meiko and Kaito to her quarters to go over the available blueprints for the vessel they would raid, and Rin and Len were doing maintenance on every single offensive and defensive system they had running.

"They don't use these for maximum security transports as a joke." Meiko let an impressed whistle slip. "If they barricade here," pointing on a spot on the blue prints, "or here," a different spot, "or here," a third spot on a different deck, "we're toast. And all those doors need manual overrides. They're too thick to blast through unless we somehow pull a mounted cannon from our ship and carry it down that tiny ass hallway."

"We're going to have to take Len with us. There is no hangar, so whatever they're transporting is likely here," Luka pointed at the central part of the ship, where the plating was the most intensive and there were security layers for security layers, and shook her head. "No, it **has** to be there."

"Len is no fighter, Luka. He might be able to crack the doors, but what are we gonna do about the ship?"

"Rin and Yukari will keep it clean. Rin takes care of approaching vessels when we dock and Yukari will guard the docking gate with an ADR. I don't care how expensive their ammo clips are. If we pull this off, we won't have to worry about money ever again."

"That plan means we have to take out the entire guard before we board the ship. Won't they try to jump into warp?"

"We're going to hit the transport with disruptor torpedoes first thing. They'll need hours to repair the damage to their warp engine." Luka had already planned that far ahead.

"How are we going to take out all those other ships? We're not even a skeleton crew. This ship functions at less than 30% efficiency."

"We should be there before them. We're going to shift some of the nearby asteroid belt into their path and spike them with ion enriched thermite bombs. That will turn the first ship that passes by into molten cheese within seconds. The Melt won't break down but by the time they reach the asteroids, they will know about the bombs anyway."

"We only have four of those bombs on board and they cost a fortune to get. But I like the way you're going all out on this."

"We're pirates. We use whatever we have to take whatever we want." Luka grinned and looked to Kaito. "I need you to take your SPC on this. There is a possibility they have armored mechs in there."

A single shot from a shoulder mounted photon collider could melt through practically anything and everything. But it was short range, took a few seconds to charge and only had room for about five shots before the thing was out of fuel. It was the most dangerous weapon any single person could carry, weighing forty kilograms.

"Understood." Kaito reached below his coat and pulled out one of his automatic rifles, tossing it to Meiko. "Carry that for me."

"Don't mind if I wreak a little havoc with it." The weight of the weapon would force her to use it with both arms or risk throwing out her shoulder. Or possibly breaking her arm. She was amazed that he could handle two of them. But then again, he was muscle from top to bottom, always training when they were just flying through space and not prepping for a mission.

"We're not taking any prisoners. If it moves, shoot it. I won't rule out the possibility that other pirates or even the Empire or the Commonwealth will show up. Whatever gets in our way, shoot it." Luka wouldn't let any unfounded mercy jeopardize the job.

"Start call, voice only, Len." Using the system that Len had developed with some of Yukari's help, Luka called him to her quarters. He was bad with guns and weapons in general but that wouldn't stop Luka from giving him some so he could pull his weight if it came down to it.

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"Leaving warp in four – three – two – one: emergence." Yukari announced it ship wide. Seeing the surrounding area on a big visual display, she immediately hammered the controls, evading a massive piece of debris. "Combat!" Yukari yelled while trying to get readings from what was happening. There were almost two dozen massive heat signatures all over the place.

Luka was in the cockpit as well, working the instruments. "Confirming identifying wave lengths of Federation ships... now. Holy hell! Eight Destroyer class ships of type BRS, four Defender class ships of type Rinne! Reading eight other signals, identifying now!" Luka couldn't believe that she had planned to take this on by herself. A destroyer of that type was four kilometers long, the defenders five times that. "We're not alone out here! Eight other ships, pirates, bounty hunters or whatever the hell they wanna be are fighting the fleet. Yukari, didn't you say they're scheduled to show up in two hours?"

"They're ahead of the planned schedule!" Her information wasn't wrong, the transport fleet had just not acted according to it. They were way too early. Forcing the ship to maneuver past debris of a destroyed ship, not belonging to the Federation, the instruments started to behave like crazy the next second. According to them, one of the heat sources suddenly turned supernova.

"The warp engine of one of the Rinne just went critical and exploded! The ship went up in a ball of fire!" Yukari hoped she was reading that correctly. She did well under pressure, but not as well as she wanted to.

"Rin, fire everything you've got! Focus on sector E-18 to G-27! We're breaking a hole into their formation and going in! Those idiots can fight with the damn Rinne and BRS until they get old and gray!" Luka kept all communication channels open at all times. Meiko and Kaito were standing by at the docking gate and that was where Luka was going to go the moment it looked like they would be able to dock, too.

Rin was down in the WCU, the weapon control unit, inputting target coordinates for the ship's main cannon, an atomic destabilizer, a weapon that could tear right through anything that wasn't protected by an high density energy umbrella. "Fire! Fire, fire, fire!" Hammering the execution code into the console, Rin turned on her chair. "Charging secondary weaponry! Launching disruptor torpedoes!" She had a lot of fun.

Without any sound at all, the Blackjack fired its main cannon directly at one of the BRS type ships that were right between them and the Melt. The ship broke apart as if something had bitten out an enormous chunk right out of its middle, likely killing everyone on board instantly.

"Len, seal off the parts of the ship we don't need and redirect power to our shield!" It consumed an atrocious amount of energy to protect a ship this large with a protective umbrella. It wasn't suited to drawn out combat. Even the most powerful ship in existence, the Empire dreadnaught class type Nishi Tegeru, of which there were only five in the entire fleet, could only supply enough energy to protect themselves for at best fifteen minutes.

"Yukari, head for sector F-17 and keep us away from those other bastards." Luka wouldn't let anyone get to the Melt before she did. Compared to other pirates, her crew was much, much smaller but her ship was just as big and more powerful than theirs. Only two or three dozen ships existed in the galaxy that had atomic destabilizer cannons.

It took time to recharge the ADC, but it was a guaranteed kill shot if it hit while the energy umbrella was down or if they didn't have one to begin with. The BRS were old ships that didn't have the means to protect themselves from such an attack.

Space lacked a clearly defined up, down or really any direction of any sort. A ship with a decent sensor was able to scan several hundred kilometers, if not thousands of kilometers, if space around them, usually in a spherical or cubical fashion and subsequently diving the space into sectors and areas within sectors, ranging from A to Z, followed by numbers attached to each letter. It was the only way to properly navigate in space.

Evading a powerful photon blast from a rival pirate shit, Yukari relayed their coordinates to Rin, who fired two photon torpedoes, one of them getting shot down, the other one hitting the ship's reach, blasting a hole into their hull.

The entire ship was shaken violently and thrown off course slightly when a massive plasma beam hit their shields, safely deflected into empty space. "One Rinne is taking aim at us!"

Luka was skilled at ship to ship combat. She hadn't studied it for four years for naught. "Yukari, sector F-49, now. Rin, fire a gravitation anchor on the Rinne. Len, the moment we reach F-49 A-12, override the airlock for the sub deck cargo back where we keep the thermite bombs."

"Roger!" All three responded at the same time, trusting their captain with their lives, no matter how bad the situation got.

"Rin, hold back the ADC until you have a clear shot at the BRS in G-12!" Luka was reading data from a dozen screens at once, her eyes rapidly shifting from location measures to heat signatures to ammo stock to energy readings to their weapon systems and so forth. She was a skilled pilot, but Yukari was practically as good as she was and as their captain, Luka excelled in making use of their talents, not doing everything herself.

"Len!" Yukari brought the ship just above, or below, the Rinne that was targeting them and taking off a lot of speed. Within seconds, Rin fired the gravitation anchor and Len dropped the contents of the third cargo bay. Hitting the engine so hard that they roared, Yukari brought the ship up to full speed, ramming a large debris fragment, scratching the hull but not sustaining any larger amount of damage, escaping the inevitable fireworks.

The heat sensors went completely white the second the ion enriched thermite bombs ignited, burning at over two-hundred thousand thousand degree Celsius, hotter than the Photosphere of many small suns.

"Rin, take the shot!" With their heat sensors blind, they had to rely on navigational data only, something that was frowned upon by many artillery officers. It was almost like shooting blind. But Rin had an exceptional talent for blowing things up.

Missing the center of the ship, she hit the front part, eliminating thirty percent of the ship, including the cockpit and most likely all of its crew that were now being sucked out into the vacuum.

"Shield won't last much longer!" Len reported. The ADC ate up too much energy. The ship shook again as a bunch of photon torpedoes bounced off their umbrella. "One minute, tops, or another big blast!"

"We're going in! Rin, rev up the warp engine. It will make them think twice about shooting at us. They'll blow their entire fleet if we go boom with the Melt in one go." Jumping up, Luka kept her communication channel open. "Yukari, you're going to protect the docking gate. Take the mounted photon cannon after we dock, forget the ADR! Len, get your ass moving to the gate! Rin, keep firing the ADC and everything we've got! You have permission to take out anything that comes within range! Just don't blow **us** up!"

"Firing connecting hooks!" Approaching the Melt sideways, the massively plated transport shook a little. It had taken a full hit from the other side. Adjusting the ship's speed and position, Yukari fired the hooks, pulling the ship closer and closer until the hulls collided.

Luka was already in place. "Kaito." They would break straight through the hull of the ship and seal it with a pressure chamber. All four of them were wearing space suits that were tight fits to their bodies. While Luka's was mostly black with large pink traces, Len was sporting a pale yellow, Kaito complete black and Meiko a crimson red.

The room was already under negative pressure and they were all breathing through the oxygen the suits provided. Two centuries ago, the need for oxygen tanks had finally vanished with the invention of this new model.

"Firing." Hitting the trigger, a beam as thick as an arm instantly broke forth from the large weapon that resembled a large tube, melting through several meters of the thick osmium alloy. The ships were close but not close enough to prevent vacuum from seeping in. But with no air in the sealed off room on the Blackjack, only the Melt suffered from it.

Jumping over the gap, gravity at an all time low, Meiko and Luka took the vanguard, Len behind them and Kaito covering their back. "Clear." Luka assumed that they were all wearing pressure suits already, considering that a hull breach was more than likely in such an intense battle.

Despite the leak, gravity was practically normal on the ship, which meant that the life support system was still working. "Len." They didn't know where to go exactly. Knowing the blueprints didn't mean that things were exactly as they assumed.

Using the handgun Luka had given him to trash a data display, he pulled out several specific cords, connecting them to his PID, portable information device, a cross between a computer and a personalized hacking utility.

Accessing the security system, it took longer than expected to crack the encryption. Before he could finish, Luka fired her first shots. Len knew better than to waste time by looking up or get worried that something might hit him. His fingers flying over the small keyboard the device offered, he finally got through. "The entire ship is on lockdown. Deck 4, sector A-11 has encryption levels I've never seen before. Whatever they have in there must be important."

Meiko fired shots as well, killing two guards that had come across the corner. Luka pulled Len up, who disconnected his device, and the four-person unit got moving. Kaito was keeping the SPC in a massive holster on his back while wielding one of his automatic rifles, providing cover fire and killing two soldiers that were careless enough to return fire.

"Kaito, you need your SPC to break the last three doors. I don't have time to break that level of encryption like this." Len didn't make any excuses why he couldn't do it. All that mattered was that he couldn't and he told the others so. Having hacked into the system's wireless by now, he was throwing their systems into chaos while they were moving.

Peeking around the corner, Meiko raised her hand and crossed her index and middle finger before making a fist and holding up three fingers. Other pirates, group of three. Luka nodded, moving her thumb across her throat and pointed at Meiko and herself, followed by using two fingers to point at Kaito and then Len.

Jumping out of cover, Meiko and Luka opened fire at the same time, but unlike Meiko, Luka didn't stay stationary and kept running towards the enemy, pulling out her cutlass. Face to face with the barrel of a rifle, she cut off the arms of the fat man, the rifle dropping to the ground. Kicking it back, ducking, Meiko landed clean hits on the a woman, piercing her helmet and head. Raising up, she took off the head of the man before whirling around and pointing her handgun to the head of the second man, firing three five times, completely destroying his head. They never had a chance.

Firing a single short backwards, Meiko signaled for the other two to come. Kaito was more skilled than Luka and Meiko, which was why he was in charge of protecting Len. It was the more difficult and dangerous job.

Cracking the door, the entire ship shook and red lights went on everywhere. "There goes life support. Keep an eye on your suits." In the age of space battles, a single hit could be fatal, even if it didn't outright kill the victim right away.

As they headed down the hallway, the ground was covered in corpses, some Federation, some pirates. "Hurry up."

Four minutes, one ambush, barricade and three dozen dead soldiers later, all four of them were panting hard. "How damn many soldiers do they have on this thing?" Luka had never killed that many people in such a short amount of time before.

"There are 500 registered security codes. Makes probably as many soldiers." Len unlocked the next door. It was the last before it was Kaito's job. The final door would be his job again, as the risk was too big to destroy whatever they kept inside if they used the SPC.

"They could fully crew a damn Defender class with that!" Luka clicked her tongue and opened fire through the door that slid open. Hitting a lone pirate that went down, she jumped in, followed by Meiko, Len and Kaito.

The next door was made of a special alloy that even the SPC would have trouble melting down. Luka wished she had brought some hand sized thermite bombs for an occasion like this. Three of them took cover, Meiko and Luka covering Kaito's back while Len continued to mess with the ship's system, distracting as many soldiers as he could. He had no taste for needless death.

With a horrible sizzling sound, the door's center molt away under the heat of the photon blast. Pure light, burning through the very atomic structure of the metal. It was an expensive and deadly weapon, similar to weapons of mass destruction of the past, but much smaller in scale.

There were no soldiers and after two more blasts, they reached a large intersection, with a massive plated door between them and their treasure.

"This is gonna take at least a few minutes!" Len sat down, focusing all his thought processes on just cracking the encryption or bypassing it somehow. Kaito took the vanguard, taking cover behind a large metal structure, while Luka and Meiko protected Len this time around. A small group of four guards rushed them, each of them going down with two well aimed bullets. Kaito was a deadly shot and a real asset in situations like this.

"Do we have any idea what to look for? This better be something we can carry ourselves!" Meiko took aim and fired at a guard that was approaching, missing a few shots before getting his legs and subsequently his head.

"Whatever it is, it needs to breathe." Len noted. "That room is the only room that has working life support. There is a pressure chamber between the main room and this corridor." Len finally got past the first layer of security, sweat running down his forehead. Only two to go. He had never seen something like this. The Federation really had pulled out **all** the stops for this one.

"Grenade!" Meiko shouted as she saw a spherical objecting flying through the air towards them. But instead of jumping for cover, she went towards it, jumping into the air and kicking it with full force, shooting it all the way down the corridor, hitting a wall. With a powerful burst, the bomb exploded, setting the solid metal wall on fire.

"One layer to go!" Len was getting the hang of this now. He didn't deal well with life threatening situations but he trusted those three to keep him safe and get him back to the ship in one piece.

Without a warning, Kaito left his cover and ran down the corridor. Sliding past the intersection, rapid fire flew across the hallway, barely missing him. "They brought a fucking mounted cannon!" Luka cursed. "Meiko, back him up!"

Without another word, the brunette went for it, taking cover at the edge of the hallway. Making a fist and showing it to Kaito, she pointed at herself, moved her fist in a circle in front of her chest and nodded. Kaito responded with a nod as well, trusting his comrade to know what she was doing.

Taking out her beam sword, Meiko cut a large panel of metal out of the wall, so heavy she could barely lift it. She pierced it with her blade all the way to the handle and used the thick plate like a shield, pushing it out into the hallway. Within seconds, the full automatic fire of the mounted cannon was rampaging against her make-shift shield.

Kaito knelt, estimated the position of the cannon by the velocity and trajectory of the bullets that Meiko was collecting and charged his SPC for the last shot it was good for. Jumping out in the open when the weapon was ready to fire, he did a last second, minimal adjustment to his aim and fired and immediately jumped behind cover, pushing Meiko down.

The cannon exploded with such force that the soldiers were virtually incinerated and a cloud of flames slithered past them like an all devouring monster. Lasting for several seconds, Kaito got up, peeked over the metal shield and couldn't see anyone alive. The corridor was a molten mess and the cannon was simply a mass of scrap metal.

As they returned to their posts, Luka raised her hand. "Good job you two."

The door slid open as Len finished cracking the last layer of security. Three of the four took careful cover. Luka peeked inside and what she saw was beyond all her expectations. A room that had dozens if not hundreds of cables, big and small, hanging from the center of its ceiling, with a single girl sitting in a metallic seat below all of it.

Countless machines littered the walls, showing data and analyzing things nonstop. The girl wore a green suit that had the markings of the Federation all over it. Several of the cables were directly connected to the suit, seemingly extending beneath it, directly into the skin of the girl.

But the weirdest thing was the girl itself. Through pressured openings in her helmet emerged two long twin tails of green hair, reaching all the way to the ground. Just as she observed the girl more closely, their eyes met. Glowing spheres surrounded by green hair. Luka immediately knew that she wouldn't come willingly. Luka raised her weapon and went in. Meiko and Kaito followed.

The girl made no attempt to attack them. It would be complete suicide to attack three people that were armed to the teeth.

"Who are you?" Luka nodded towards the girl, pointing her gun towards her head. She didn't expect the treasure to be a cute girl.

"Vocaloid, Model Zero One, Miku Hatsune, Operative of the Federation Military Forces. Leave, or I'll incinerate you where you stand." The girl's intentions betrayed her cute look and voice. She was through and through a soldier. She slowly stood up and glared at Luka. "You are an enemy of the Federation."

"You're coming with us." Luka remained where she was. She didn't know how credible the girl's claims were.

"I don't think so. Engaging vocal module one to twelve. Interpreting audible cues to code. This is your last warning. Execu-" A blue flash flew past Luka and the girl bent over in pain, making a grunting noise as the fist of the muscular mercenary buried itself into her stomach.

"What do we do, Captain?" Kaito looked at the now unconscious girl that was on the ground. She was clearly not going to cooperate.

"Fuck this, we're taking her. Gag, blindfold and tie her up. She won't be able to do shit if she can't see, move or talk." Luka didn't know what kind of crazy weapon the Federation had cooked up now, but she was sure that there were limits to everything. "Meiko, you're carrying her. I'm leading. Kaito, you have our back. Good job stopping her by the way." Luka looked at all the machinery, took out her cutlass and wreaked havoc for a few seconds, leaving only sizzling trash behind. "Time to get out of this hellhole."

- Log 001 End -


	2. Exchange of Goods

**Voice in the Void**

Log 002

**Exchange of Goods**

"_This_ is the weapon?" Rin peered at the blindfolded, gagged, and tied-up girl and wrinkled her nose. "You're kidding, right?" She poked her in the side and Miku rolled away. "She looks totally normal to me."

The crew was assembled around Miku in the med bay. The girl had regained consciousness shortly after they got the hell out of Melt, though due to her gag and blindfold, no one could see her facial expression. Luka had no doubt that the girl was pissed beyond all measure though. Not that she could blame her for being angry about being kidnapped by pirates.

"Well, for someone 'totally normal' she was guarded really heavily," said Len. "Maybe her suit is what's special?"

Meiko shook her head. "If it's just a suit, then all you need to guard is a suit. No need to hook up a person with a bunch of wires to it."

"She was about to use some kind of attack when we found her," said Luka. "She was even haughty enough to give us - three armed pirates - a warning. Not that that stopped Kaito from knocking her out flat." Luka put a hand to her chin and tried to remember what Miku was saying before Kaito knocked her out. 'Vocal module'. 'Audible cues to code'. And that last word, the one that just barely got cut off when Kaito knocked her out - 'execute'.

Rin shrugged. "She could just be messed up in the head, you know." She examined the girl. "I mean, look at her! Seriously. A gun at close range would take her out easy." Rin poked Miku's arm. "She isn't super buff either."

"If she's messed up in the head, then the entire Federation's messed up in the head to put her under such heavy security," said Luka. The girl's unshakable confidence from earlier hung in her mind. "She called herself a Vocaloid. Plus, Yukari's info said that she could wipe a hundred square kilometers of space clean, right?"

"That's right," said Yukari, glancing at the still Miku.

"So what is she then? A human bomb?" asked Len.

"That's a lot of work and money to pour into a bomb," Yukari said. She looked over at Luka. "Captain, can we take her gag off?"

Luka frowned, remembering Miku's vocal commands from earlier. "Whatever her powers are, unless she was bluffing back on the ship, they're all voice activated. We can't just ungag her."

"Fucking ridiculous," Meiko muttered. "I was expecting a cannon or something."

"I know right?" Rin threw her hands up. "Here I was getting all excited about a new cannon or a gun or _anything_ that goes 'boom'."

Luka looked over at Miku. The girl could hear everything they're saying right now - they didn't bother with stuffing her ears. Luka walked over to her and unsheathed her cutlass, making sure that Miku could hear the beam's activation. She ripped off Miku's blindfold and pointed the cutlass at her neck.

Miku's eyes glared at Luka with such force that Luka found herself wondering if this superweapon had some kind of destructive eye-beam too. Still, Luka held herself steady. "I'm removing your gag. You know what is gonna happen if you try anything funny." That said, she ripped off Miku's gag. Miku's eyes squeezed shut in brief pain, her lips reddened from the gag itself.

"You're a pretty little number for a superweapon, aren't you?" Luka observed. "What are you?" She asked the last question more for the benefit for those who weren't in the room Miku was discovered in rather than anything else.

"Like I said," said Miku, her voice surprisingly calm considering her situation, "I am a Vocaloid, Model Zero One, Miku Hatsune, Operative of the Federation Military Forces." She said it so smoothly Luka had no doubt that the Federation drilled those words into her head. "I have no intention of working with enemies of the Federation."

"Great," said Meiko. "She's completely brainwashed."

"Is that the only thing you can say?" Luka asked. "Vocaloid, Model Zero One, enemy of the Federation? Didn't they teach you basic communication skills?"

Miku only looked amused. "You have no idea what I can do, huh?" She glanced down at Luka's cutlass as though it was a blunt toothpick. "I'll make it easy for you. Give me back to the Federation."

"Why the hell would we do that?"

Miku stared at Luka. "You _really_ have no idea what I am." She shook her head. "I'll tell you a little bit. My powers are activated by voice. As to what they are," Miku grinned, "are you sure you want to find out? I can blow this entire ship up, and for me, that's just the tip of the iceberg."

"You won't do that," said Luka. "If you blow up the ship, you die too."

"Are you sure about that?" said Miku.

Luka stared at Miku, but Miku's expression gave away nothing. Though she doubted her words, she couldn't be absolutely sure that the girl didn't have some kind of crazy way of surviving in space with her powers. She _was _a heavily guarded superweapon that could apparently tip the scales in this war. Luka shouldn't underestimate her.

With a sigh Luka turned away from Miku, keeping her cutlass at her neck, to face Yukari. "Yukari, go find some buyers for this thing."

Yukari nodded and left. Luka turned back to look at Miku. The girl looked mildly displeased.

"Buyers?" said Miku. "You have no right to sell me. I'm Federation property, and human trafficking is illegal in all three factions. I don't see how you can-"

"Looks like you need a little education on what we are," said Luka. "In case you missed the memo, we're pirates. And in this universe, there are _always_ going to be buyers. If we went through all that trouble to steal you, we better get some credits for it."

Miku scowled, petulant. If she wasn't a deadly superweapon who just threatened to blow up her ship and crew, Luka would have found her expression cute. "Who are you going to sell me to?"

"Who knows? Could be anyone. Could be the Federation. Or it could be the Empire...I'm sure they'd pay a good deal to have such a strong weapon in their hands. Or the Commonwealth. Whoever it is, it's of no concern to us as long as we get the money." Despite Luka's nonchalant tone, her mind was racing. One thing was clear - she had to get Miku off her ship as soon as possible. Not only was she belligerent, she was also valuable. Too valuable for the Federation to simply sit on their heels. No, they would definitely want Miku back. And such a heavily guarded weapon would have had surveillance around her, hell, maybe even a tracking chip somewhere in her clothes or implanted in her. Luka's crew may be capable, and Luka was proud of them like no other, but there was no chance of them surviving a concerted Federation manhunt.

At the same time, Luka had no intention of letting Miku know about her thoughts. She had to project confidence. The more power she has over Miku, the better. First order of business - take away Miku's weapon. Luka nodded at Kaito, who stepped forward. Miku tensed at the sight of him, clearly remembering the punch that knocked her out. Her large eyes darted from him to Luka to Luka's cutlass, as though unsure of what to focus on.

Luka inclined her head towards Miku, briefly covering her own mouth with her hand, and Kaito got the message. He swiftly gagged Miku and took a step back. There was a tangible sense of relaxation in the room.

"Do we just keep her here?" Len asked.

Luka shrugged. Miku was tied so securely she doubted she could do any sort of moving other than rolling. "She can't do much damage here without her hands, her legs, and her voice. Let's get moving."

$ # € # ¥

Yukari rubbed her eyes. It had been a long day, or at least, a long period of time since she last slept. Between capturing Miku and dealing with flying out of there with the Blackjack and crew in one piece, no one had gotten any rest. Though, considering how a find like Miku was a once in a lifetime chance, it was only to be expected.

But her tiredness was irrelevant. First things first, Yukari had to find a buyer and proceed with the plan. The Empire would undoubtedly want to get their hands on Miku, so Yukari called up a contact in the Empire first. After the usual pleasantries, Yukari got to business. She was too tired to spend much time making meaningless small talk when she had a quadrillion credit sell to make.

On the screen, her contact frowned and hummed and deliberated for what seemed like far too long. "I'm not sure if we want to make this buy."

"What?" Yukari stared at the screen. "Why not? Miku is a weapon that could tip the scales in this stalemated war. The figures I was given estimated her powers as revolutionary."

"She may be a revolutionary girl," said her contact, "but think about it. If this Miku was a cannon, plans for a bomb, something more, ah..._mechanical_, we would make the buy. But she's not. We believe she is a genetically modified human weapon and we can only assume that she volunteered for the position of being the Federation's lab rat. In other words, she's completely loyal." Her contact leaned forward. The room he was in was so dark it obscured his features. All Yukari could make out was a black silhouette. "Why would the Empire take such a risk of buying a highly dangerous human superweapon who is loyal to an enemy faction? The damage she could cause to our army and ships and mechs, if the information you gave us was correct, would be astronomical." He leaned back in his seat. "The costs alone would make the Empire weaker, and we cannot afford that at this stage in the war."

Yukari frowned. Hard as it was to admit, she could see the logic in her contact's words. Finding a buyer for Miku would be more difficult than she thought. If the militaristic Empire wasn't willing to buy such a weapon, Yukari had her doubts that the poorer Commonwealth would want to as well. Furthermore, both factions would likely be too worried about the risks incurred by buying a sentient enemy weapon. With the three factions locked in a stalemate, it is unlikely that any of them would take the chance and buy Miku.

Yukari rubbed her temples and sighed. She may have to sell Miku back to the Federation, and in that case, the Federation would be in the position of power. After all, they were an entire faction, certainly large enough to crush a small pirate crew in a stolen battleship. Furthermore, they knew that, and would definitely use their larger size and power to try to intimidate the crew to get Miku at a much lower price than she was valued at. Basically...the pirates bit off way more than they could chew.

That in mind, Yukari called up one of her contacts in the Federation military. He answered voice only, so the only thing Yukari could see on the screen was an audio wave.

"Hey Yukari," he said, his voice warm. "I heard you're selling something. Something you stole from us."

Yukari pulled a fake smile even though the contact couldn't see. Facial expressions affected the tone of one's voice, she believed. "That's right! I'm selling her back to you."

"That's great," he said. "I'm glad you and your crew had the good sense to do that before things got unpleasant for you all. The higher ups were furious that the info about Vocaloid got out. Positively livid. Since we're such good friends, Yukari, I'll do you a favor and actually pay your little pirate crew for our weapon back. I know that's what your lot is all in for anyways."

"You know us, we only care about money," said Yukari. "How much are you paying for her?"

"We'll give your lot five billion credits for it."

Only five billion? Yukari's heart sank. "Are you serious? Miku is worth trillions of credits. Surely the Federation-"

"...knows that if we wanted to, we could hunt down our weapon now and blow your little pirate crew to pieces, _with_ your stolen cargo's help? Yes," he said. "I'm being generous here since we've been friends for so long, Yukari."

Yukari winced. She didn't know if the Federation could actually hunt them down, but spending months evading Federation forces with a highly dangerous and sentient Federation superweapon did not sound appealing in the slightest. Miku may be held captive now, but Yukari was sure that, as more and more time passes, Miku would resort to drastic measures to get back to her home. They had to sell Miku quick, before the entire Federation catches up to them. Selling her under worth stung, but it was necessary if they wanted to survive. Still...what a failure.

"I'll have to talk to my captain first," said Yukari.

"Right, right," said her contact. "I'm sure she'll understand the situation, she seems like a smart woman. Once she agrees, call me back and we can arrange a time and place to meet for the exchange of goods."

Exchange of goods...it was a callous term to use for 'selling a human'. The word usage stuck on Yukari's mind like a burr. "You don't really treat her like a person, huh?"

"It's a weapon, Yukari," said her contact. "That's all it is."

With that, he hung up, leaving Yukari staring at a blank screen.

$ # € # ¥

Though everyone else had left, Luka opted to stay in the med bay to keep an eye on Miku to make sure the girl didn't do anything stupid. Plus, the girl wasn't all that bad to look at either - her hair appeared almost teal under the med bay lights and her body was slim but strong. Honestly, Luka couldn't complain.

"So, what's a beautiful girl like you doing being a superweapon for the government?" Luka asked as she paced around the room. The walls were a sterile white and the lights were adjusted for maximum patient comfort, so Luka didn't cast any threatening shadows on the wall.

Miku rolled her eyes and turned away from Luka as much as she was able.

"You don't seem stupid," said Luka. "Why join the military? When you work in there, you have to deal with rules...especially since you're special. When you're a pirate, fuck rules. You can go anywhere and do anything. Why serve soullessly when you can do whatever you want?" Luka walked over to the other side of the bed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter now. You made your choice. Too late to be a free when you're a brainwashed Federation slave." Luka said the last to get some kind of rise out of Miku. Miku glared at her. If the gag wasn't preventing her from talking, Luka was sure that she would be leaping to the Federation's defense like a good little superweapon.

"It's too bad," Luka mock-sighed. "I would-" Whatever more she had to say was cut off by an incoming call. "Whoops. Excuse me," Luka grinned at Miku, who was still glaring at her. "Receive call."

A small screen with Yukari's face on it popped up. The girl looked haggard. Immediately, Luka knew that whatever she had to say would be bad news. "Captain, I found a buyer."

Luka glanced over at Miku and walked a ways away from her. Pointless since she could probably hear every word, but still. "What's the catch?"

"We'll be selling her way under worth," Yukari fidgeted. "It'll be to the Federation and they're offering five billion for her."

Luka couldn't say she was too surprised. A weapon like Miku, the universe's hottest stolen item, would not be sold so easily, especially considering how loyal she is to the Federation - any potential buyers would have to deal with her trying to escape and sabotaging her own buyers. Yukari obviously looked disappointed with herself, and Luka didn't especially feel the need to beat the girl up about not getting a higher figure - the circumstances being what they were, Luka knew that they had to get Miku off the ship fast, otherwise the Federation would likely catch up to them. Better to get rid of her now, without too much drama, than otherwise.

"Can't raise it higher?" asked Luka.

Yukari bowed her head. "I...don't think so, Captain. I'm sorry."

Luka nodded. "None of us expected the weapon to be human. Fine then, contact your buyer and set up a time and place for us to give her to him."

"Will do," Yukari clicked off. Her screen disappeared and Luka turned back towards Miku, who was regarding her curiously.

"Looks like you're in luck," said Luka. "We're handing you back over to the Federation."

Miku's eyes immediately brightened up. Luka sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Five billion credits wasn't _too_ bad, she thought. It was enough money to let them break even, maybe even walk away with just a little bit of a profit although it wouldn't be much when divided among the crew. Taking on such a heavily guarded ship with such heavily guarded cargo and getting away with it was a nice morale booster for the crew as well, Luka thought. All in all, it wasn't too bad of an outcome. Hell, she even got to meet a cute girl during it, even though said cute girl was a superweapon who is staunchly loyal to the Federation.

"You sure look excited," said Luka. "That eager to get back to throwing yourself into unpaid danger for a government that probably doesn't give a shit about you?"

Miku gave Luka as much of a dour look as possible and turned away again. Apparently for Miku, none of Luka's words were worth listening to.

For a moment, Luka felt a sting of regret. She didn't know what would happen to Miku after she gets sold back to the Federation, but Luka had no doubt that the government would use her relentlessly. She would constantly be under surveillance, constantly restrained by rules, and constantly following orders. It sounded like hell.

But whatever, Luka told herself. If that kind of life was what the girl wanted, then that was her own choice. Luka was a pirate, not a life counselor. She had enough to worry about with her own ship and crew.

At any rate, she could safely leave Miku now that Miku knew that she would soon be delivered back to the Federation. Luka doubted that the girl would do anything to jeopardize her own safe transit back to the undoubtedly loving hands of her own government.

"Well," said Luka as she left the room, "make your own choices."

$ # € # ¥

Somehow, the ship ended up making port at Austriche again, as that was the location the buyer specified for the buying of Miku. It wasn't a surprising choice - as one of the most pirate-welcoming planets out there, the selling of stolen goods would hardly blink an eye there, and human trafficking, albeit illegal, still occurred. The Federation didn't want the handing over of Miku to be too public, considering what she was, and even though the pirates was selling Miku to the government, they could hardly do anything so audacious as to have the pirates waltz onto their home planet, Luanite Feva, and straight-up sell Miku in the government offices.

Since Yukari typically made the sales, she was the one who was assigned to meet the buyer with Miku. Miku was untied, ungagged, and unblindfolded, calmly looking around the city. Since she was willing to go back to the Federation, no one saw the need to tie her up. Besides, even in Austriche, dragging a hogtied girl through the city was hardly acceptable.

"We'll be meeting him downtown," Yukari said to Miku as she headed down a flight of rickety stairs.

Miku nodded and said nothing, still not looking at Yukari. Clearly, what she wanted was to get all this over with quickly. Yukari followed her gaze. Miku was looking at an entirely uninteresting statue, one that was quickly disappearing from view as the two of them went further down to the lower layers of Austriche. The light dimmed more and more, the sun and sky replaced by electric lights and metal sheeting. Only a few places downtown were very well-lit, otherwise the energy costs would bite too large a chunk out of the development funds for the new town up above.

"Why down here?" Miku asked, a slight frown on her face.

"It's easier to get away with things down here," said Yukari with a smile as she glanced over at Miku, who was still preoccupied with looking around the city. The contact had specified subtlety. The sale would be made in a crowded marketplace, and Yukari was to be as discreet as possible. It was another reason why Miku wasn't tied up, as a gagged and blindfolded girl was hardly discreet.

After the two of them reached downtown proper, Yukari made a right turn into a crowded marketplace. It was reaching noon on Austriche, and the streets were full of shoppers. Her eyes surveyed the crowd. The buyer said that he would be reading a newspaper by a pork bun vendor, but there were so many stalls and vendors and people that Yukari was having a hard time telling who sold what. Due to downtown being literally covered by a metal sheet, the smoke of the market hung in the air and mixed together in an amorphous mass, stinging Yukari's eyes. The smells as they walked ranged from fermented fish to frying oil. Miku wrinkled her nose in slight distaste.

"We're going to smell like a barbeque once all this is over," said Yukari, more to herself than to Miku, who didn't seem up for conversation anyways. She pushed her way through a mob of people crowded around a fruit seller. It was a relatively good place to make a sale, she figured. Everyone here was so focused on buying food and goods that they would hardly notice Miku being sold. Furthermore, in this sort of social situation, the common observer would most likely assume that Yukari was taking Miku somewhere to meet a friend, or something along those lines. If they had gone to some shady alley to sell Miku, it would have been obvious right away that something fishy was happening.

A ways into the market, Yukari found it - a small, shabby white cart with flaking paint and a ragged red umbrella pitched over it. A bored-looking woman in a stained apron and a hairnet handed wrapped pork buns to customers. A man reading a newspaper leaned against the wall next to the cart. Everything about him looked nondescript, but Yukari recognized him.

"Want a pork bun before we go?" Yukari asked Miku, half-jokingly, but Miku only stared at her as though Yukari had asked her to prance through the streets naked. Yukari sighed. So much for communicating with the girl. She was hungry, even if Miku wasn't, so she bought herself a pork bun and promptly burned her tongue on how hot the filling was. She was still recovering when she walked over to the buyer with Miku.

The buyer glanced up. "Burned yourself on a pork bun?" He looked over at Miku and smiled. "Good to see you brought it in one piece."

Miku hung back, eyeing the buyer warily. "You're Federation?"

"Of course," he said. "We're here to bring you home." He subtly inclined his head towards a group of people Yukari had previously took to be confused tourists and walked over towards Miku, passing Yukari on the way. "Your payment is in your account," he whispered in Yukari's ear before gently taking Miku by the wrist. "Good doing business with you, as always."

Yukari faked a smile and a nod as she bounced the hot pork bun in her hand. "Just give me a good seller rating."

The man smiled blankly at her before leading Miku away. The two of them melted into the crowd, disappearing between shoppers and vendors. Yukari found herself struck by the realization that she had just sold a human in front of everyone and no one noticed, or if they did, cared enough to say anything. Though the market was full of people, though the handing over of Miku was painfully obvious, nothing happened.

But as someone who grew up in poverty, Yukari was not unfamiliar with how blind people can be to uncomfortable sights, how willingly they could ignore suffering. Not for the first time, Yukari wondered what exactly the Federation had in plan for Miku. Judging from how she was always referred to as an object, it couldn't be anything good. Even though Miku was a superweapon, she was still _human._

Yukari shook her head quickly in an attempt to dislodge the unease from her mind. There was no point in getting regretful now that Miku was already sold. Besides, she was far too dangerous to keep on the ship in the first place with the Federation after her and her own reluctance when it comes to staying on a pirate crew. It wasn't as though anyone really had a choice in the matter - Miku had to be sold no matter what, otherwise the Blackjack was sunk. Still, it didn't feel right to give a girl who seemed so idealistically loyal to her government away so that she could be used as some kind of object.

Yukari finished off her pork bun and squeezed out of the market, emerging onto the crowded main street and walking back to the port, forcing her mind away from the actual selling of Miku in order to do the mental calculations needed to distribute the five billion. It was a little profit. Not much after distribution, but a little. And as long as they had profit, that was good. For pirates, Yukari told herself, profit was all that mattered.

$ # € # ¥

After the selling of Miku, it was near unanimously decided that the crew deserved a little break after the stress of stealing a powerful superweapon, so Luka found herself, once again, on the streets of Austriche's downtown. But downtown Austriche wasn't the kind of place where one could spend a lot of time in without getting bored, despite all the entertainments there, and Luka was a pirate at heart - spending too much time at port, and at the same port at that, just didn't sit right with her.

Still, her crew seemed perfectly fine with taking another hedonistic break, so Luka tried to shake herself out of her restlessness, her mind thinking of ways to occupy herself until they left. There were always the brothels or the bars. She could get drunk, or pick up a girl, or both. She could go to some restaurant and eat something. She could sightsee, but Luka was relatively certain that she had already seen everything worth seeing in Austriche. She could catch a show, go shopping for something...a wide range of possibilities stretched out before her, but strangely, all of them seemed boring. Luka rubbed her face with a hand and sighed, her mind turning towards the possibility of hiring more people to join the crew. After the operation for stealing Miku, the Blackjack's lack of crew was made even clearer than it was before. Of course, everyone did well, exceptionally so in fact - it was a miracle they managed to steal Miku in the first place - but Luka couldn't help but to think that things would have been a lot easier with a few more people to help out. Besides, the minimum crew required for full usage of the Blackjack's capabilities was one hundred and fifty. It was a far cry from their current crew of six.

But a hundred and fifty crew members was way too much for such a small pirate band to maintain at the moment. Despite her confidence, Luka had no illusions about her capabilities. A hundred and fifty crew members at the moment would be overreaching, especially since many of the Blackjack's facilities were shut down due to disrepair and lack of parts. First order of business in terms of crew members would probably be to get a mechanic and a doctor. Though Rin was an efficient and skilled hardware engineer, her main interest laid in guns and bombs and general offense, not so much the care and maintenance of a ship, and considering how dangerous the life of a pirate was, a doctor should definitely be on board in case of any mishaps.

Speaking of mishaps...Luka wondered how Miku was doing. The girl definitely seemed eager to go back to the Federation, though Luka had no idea why. From the sounds of it, considering how she was a heavily guarded superweapon, the Federation was probably just going to mercilessly use the girl until she burns out. Such was the life of a government slave. Not that that was any of Luka's concern - Miku may be cute, but she's old enough to make her own life decisions.

Lost in thought, Luka's feet took her back to the bar and grill she went to before. Unlike last time, the place was quiet, most likely due to the lack of Rin and Meiko stirring the regulars up. Luka sat herself at the bar. It was sticky from one too many spilled drinks.

She was just about to order a drink, maybe scout the place for potential crew members, when she received a call. Luka answered it. Yukari's face popped up on her vidscreen, expression worried - something Luka found was rapidly approaching the norm these days.

"What is it?" Luka said, not waiting for Yukari to greet her.

Yukari bit her lip. "After the selling, I received information from one of my contacts..."

"Is it about a big haul somewhere?"

"Um...no," said Yukari. "No, it's about Miku."

Luka frowned. More about Miku? They had just sold her, what more could there possibly be? "Miku's no longer of our concern."

"I know, but...she's being sent on a suicide mission, Luka." Yukari's voice lowered. "We sold her to be killed. And it'll be _so _big, Captain, we're talking about a final move that'll plunge the universe into war. Not this stalemate, either - flat out war."

Flat out war? Luka's frown deepened. Those words were anathema to pirates. There was simply no way one could run an orderly space pirate business with destroyers itching for battle at every quadrant in space. Furthermore...Luka remembered Miku, her simple determination and staunch loyalty to the Federation. Someone so naive was way out of her depth in these large-scale wars, even if she was a superweapon. "So you're saying we should delve right in and rescue Miku, is that right?"

"With all due respect, Captain," said Yukari, "I think prolonging the stalemate would be in our best interest."

"It'll be risky," Luka mused. "After having Miku stolen one time, the Federation is probably going to cover her even more. More security, more guard ships, more everything. I'm not sure we can afford it."

"That's true..." Yukari looked clearly disheartened.

Then, with a shake of her head, Luka laughed. "To hell with it. We just got money from selling her. Let's use it to steal her back. Get back to the ship, Yukari." That said, Luka ended the call. As she was getting up, the bartender placed a glass of beer Luka forgot she ordered in front of her. Luka quickly downed it, paid, and left, ignoring barmaids and waitresses who tried to catch her eye. The more she walked, the more excited she felt. Sure, it was going to be risky, a hell of a mission after their last one. Miku could be anywhere from a ship to a space station, and it would be difficult to save her, but Luka thrived on challenges. Why be a pirate otherwise?

Along the way, she called up the other crew members with a brief message to assemble at the ship. By the time she arrived at port and boarded the Blackjack, she found the crew ready and waiting in the navigation room.

"Hope your enjoyed your leave, because our next mission is going to be a hell of a lot tougher than the last," Luka said. "We sold Miku to the Federation today, and we'll be stealing her back."

There was a brief silence that Meiko broke, her eyebrow arched. "Why?"

"I've received information from Yukari that Miku will be used in a decisive suicide mission in a move to tip the scales of the war," said Luka. "I don't think I need to explain why that would be bad for business. That, and..." Luka smiled, "it'd be a shame to let such a cute girl die."

Meiko groaned. "I bet that's the _only_ reason."

"As expected from the captain," Rin said with a sigh, shaking her head.

"You're hardly one to talk," Meiko said.

Luka clapped her hands together, effectively ending Meiko and Rin's miniature conversation. "Enough talk. You all know what you have to do, so stop being statues and get goin'!"

- End of Log 002 -


End file.
